Glass Animals
Glass Animals | |
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Glass Animals performing at the Aragon Ballroom, Chicago | |
Background information | |
Origin | Oxford, England |
Genres | |
Years active | 2010-present |
Labels |
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Members |
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Website | glassanimals |
Glass Animals are an English indie rock band from Oxford consisting of members Dave Bayley (lead vocals, guitar), Drew MacFarlane (guitar, keys, backing vocals), Edmund Irwin-Singer (bass, keys, backing vocals), and Joe Seaward (drums).[2] The group released their debut album Zaba in June 2014 as the first release on producer Paul Epworth's label Wolf Tone, and their second album How to Be a Human Being on 26 August 2016, which received a nomination for the 2017 Mercury Prize,[3]. The band has toured internationally and featured at festivals including Austin City Limits, Summer Well, Glastonbury,[4] Coachella,[5] Bonnaroo,[6] Lollapalooza, Reading/Leeds,[7] Falls Festival, Firefly Music Festival[8], St Jerome's Laneway Festival, Southbound and Bestival.
Background
2012–15: Zaba and various EPs
Bandmates Bayley, Seaward, MacFarlane and Irwin-Singer were friends at secondary school in Oxford, forming Glass Animals in 2010 during the summer holidays while attending different universities in the UK. They first performed live at Oxford's Jericho Tavern on 9 April 2010 supporting Chapel Club. Their radio debut was on BBC Introducing in Oxford in June of the same year, with "Slikk Furr".[9] The band released their debut EP, Leaflings, on 28 May 2012, which included the single "Cocoa Hooves". It was released on independent label Kaya Kaya Records, a subsidiary and imprint of XL Recordings (part of the Beggars Group of labels). Lead singer and guitarist Dave Bayley was attending medical school at King's College, London but left after Adele's producer Paul Epworth saw Glass Animals performing in London and signed them to his label Wolf Tone.
In 2013, the band released Black Mambo/Exxus EP in Europe, and Glass Animals EP in the USA. The online release of the track Black Mambo brought the band their first attention via a number of reviews and reposts on internet blogs.[10] "We didn’t really know anything about the music industry or the music world. We were just trying to figure out who we were, what sounded good to us," said lead singer Dave Bayley when asked what the band was doing during the period of time between the release of "Black Mambo" and their debut album.[11] The Glass Animals EP also saw the band collaborating with Jean Deaux, a soulful hip-hop teenager from Chicago, on a song titled "Woozy".
In 2014, the band made their first visit to the USA, performing 8 times at South by Southwest[12]in Austin, Texas. released three more singles: Pools, Gooey, and Hazey, along with a short remix EP of Gooey that featured the song Holiest, a collaboration with Argentine indie pop singer-songwriter and producer Tei Shi.
All five singles (Cocoa Hooves, Black Mambo, Pools, Gooey, and Hazey) were featured on the band's debut album, Zaba (stylized as ZABA), which was released on 6 June 2014. The album received generally positive reviews and brought the band to over 7 million listeners on Spotify the following year, with the songs "Gooey", "Black Mambo", and "Toes" becoming the most popular from the album on Apple Music. Two deluxe versions of Zaba were released in August 2015.[13] The Amazon version had exclusive stripped versions of the singles "Gooey", "Black Mambo", "Hazey", and "Cocoa Hooves", while the iTunes version included bonus tracks "Psylla" and "Exxus" (previously released on the band's second EP, Glass Animals) along with remixes of "Black Mambo" and "Gooey".
The band performed the single "Gooey" on Late Night with Seth Meyers[14] in 2014, and again on The Late Show with David Letterman[15] on 24 February 2015, and toured extensively after Zaba, visiting both hemispheres and played over 130 shows in 2015 alone. Their October 2015 US tour included two sold out shows at The Wiltern in LA and sold out shows across America including T5 in NYC, The Riverside in Milwaukee, and The Midland in Kansas City. A collaboration with American hip hop recording artist Joey Bada$$, titled "Lose Control", was released on 6 October 2015. The idea for the song was apparently sparked during a randomly shared studio session.
2016–17: How to Be a Human Being and tour
On 16 May 2016, the band released the lead single, "Life Itself", from their second album How to Be a Human Being.[16] It features a more boisterous, percussion-driven sound than that of Glass Animals' previous singles, leading many fans to believe that the album's sound would set it apart from Zaba. "Life Itself" peaked at number 14 on Billboard's Alternative Songs chart and spent 26 weeks on Sirius XM's Alt-18 chart, peaking at number 1. Dave Bayley stated in an interview that the song was about "a sci-fi obsessed dude who spends most of his time alone inventing strange things and writing stories about ray guns or looking for aliens on Google Maps."[17] A music video for the song was released on 7 June 2016. The band also created a website based on the character from "Life Itself".
On 25 July, a second single from the album, "Youth", was released along with its music video. The song is supposedly based on a devastating story that a stranger once told the band about her son. Dave Bayley said in an interview that the strange combination of happiness, sadness, and nostalgia in the song "kind of made me feel like my heart was being ripped apart but [was] also optimistic in a weird way... that combination of emotions is what this song is getting at."[17] The band also revealed that the upcoming album would follow in the footsteps of singles "Life Itself" and "Youth"—each song would tell the story of a different character.[citation needed] On 15 August, the band announced on Twitter that a website for "Youth," Dizzy On Caffeine, had been released.
Four days before the release of the album, on 22 August, the band released a third single, "Season 2 Episode 3", about a girl who "spends her entire time watching TV, lounging around, not doing anything, being high, eating mayonnaise from a jar."[18] It featured a prominent sample of the beat from "I Live Above the Hobby Shop" by Chicago synthesizer McFabulous. The song was used in Apple's "Shot on iPhone by Linda H." advertisement.[19]
The full album, titled How to Be a Human Being, was released on 26 August 2016 by Wolf Tone and Caroline International in Europe, and Harvest Records in the United States. The album received critical acclaim for its "sense of wonder" and "immediate impression", though it was also met with some mixed reactions, for critics felt that it was somewhat premature. On 4 January 2017, Glass Animals performed their song "Pork Soda" from the album on the Late Late Show hosted by James Corden.
After their performance on the Late Late Show, Glass Animals visited Laneway Festivals in six different cities (Singapore, Sydney, and Auckland, among others). During their time in Australia, their three singles from How To Be A Human Being—Youth, Life Itself, and Season 2 Episode 3, respectively—came in at 38, 63 and 98 on Triple J's Hottest 100. Glass Animals frontman Dave Bayley also collaborated with electronic musician and producer Flume during his Australian visit, his vocals appearing in Skin Companion EP II's track "Fantastic".[20]
On 7 March 2017, Glass Animals released a website and music video for their track "Pork Soda" from How to Be a Human Being. A radio edit was then released, and "Pork Soda" was announced to be the fourth single from the album. On 9 June 2017, the band released a radio edit of "Agnes" and announced it to be the fifth single from their album. A music video for "Agnes" was released on 2 August 2017.
On the eve of Glass Animals' concert held at Leeds and Reading Festivals, Spin reported that their song "Pork Soda" and their previous stage decoration highlighting on pineapples might lead to the total prohibition of the fruit being allowed inside the concert. The magazine cited sources from the BBC that a spokesperson for both of the festivals expressed concern about too many pineapples being brought inside the venue might cause chaos and disorder. The official website of Reading Festival had already made explicit the new rule to ban pineapples at the concert a month leading up to the event[21].
In July 2018, drummer Joe Seaward was seriously injured when he was hit by a lorry while cycling in Dublin. Joe's accident and recovery resulted in the band canceling their remaining tour dates for rest of the year.[22]
Band members
- David "Dave" Bayley (born 7 June 1989)[23] [24]– Lead vocals, guitar, tambourine
- Andrew "Drew" L. MacFarlane (born 21 November 1988)[25][26] – Guitar, keys, backing vocals
- Edmund Irwin-Singer (born 23 November 1988)[27][28] – Bass, keys, backing vocals
- Joseph "Joe" Seaward (born 22 October 1988)[29][30] – Drums
Discography
Studio albums
Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | Sales | ||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
UK [31] |
AUS [32] |
BEL (FL) [33] |
BEL (WA) [34] |
CAN [35] |
FRA [36] |
IRL [37] |
NED [38] |
SWI [39] |
US [40] | ||||||
Zaba |
|
92 | 12 | — | 162 | — | — | — | — | — | 177 |
| |||
How to Be a Human Being[42] |
|
23 | 11 | 68 | 151 | 50 | 120 | 20 | 77 | 87 | 20 | ||||
"—" denotes albums that did not chart, or were not released in that country. |
Extended plays
Title | Released |
---|---|
Leaflings |
2012 |
Glass Animals |
2013 |
Singles
Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | Certifications (List of music recording certifications) | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AUS [43] |
CAN Rock [44] |
MEX Air. [45] |
US Alt [46] |
US Rock [47] | |||||||||
"Black Mambo" | 2013 | — | — | — | 23 | 42 | Zaba | ||||||
"Pools" | 2014 | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||
"Gooey" | 40 | — | 25 | 19 | 26 | ||||||||
"Hazey" | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||
"Lose Control" (with Joey Bada$$) | 2015 | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album single | ||||||
"Life Itself" | 2016 | — | 48 | — | 14 | 21 | How to Be a Human Being | ||||||
"Youth" | — | — | — | — | 29 |
| |||||||
"Season 2 Episode 3" | — | — | — | — | 42 | ||||||||
"Pork Soda" | 2017 | — | — | 48 | 33 | — | |||||||
"Agnes" | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. |
Other charting songs
Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
US Rock [47] | |||||||||||||
"The Other Side Of Paradise" | 2016 | 45 | How to Be a Human Being | ||||||||||
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. |
References
- ^ [1]
- ^ Glass Animals (New band of the day No 1,635), by Paul Lester; at The Guardian, London, Thursday 7 November 2013 07.00 GMT. Retrieved on 28 February 2014.
- ^ "Oxford's Glass Animals nominated for the Mercury Prize".
- ^ "2015". Glastonbury Festival. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
- ^ "Best Hard Core: Off! - 20 Best Things We Saw at Coachella 2015's Weekend Two". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
- ^ "Bonnaroo 2015 Day 1 Thursday Recap: Tove Lo, Glass Animals, Dej Loaf, Unlocking the Truth | Billboard". Billboard. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
- ^ "Glass Animals, 2015, Reading and Leeds Festival - BBC Music". BBC. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
- ^ "Past Lineups | Firefly Music Festival". Firefly Music Festival. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
- ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0086qp8
- ^ "Hype Machine - Glass Animals - Black Mambo".
- ^ "Embarrassing moments and how they got their unique sound, Glass Animals [Interview] - EARMILK". EARMILK. 23 June 2015. Retrieved 29 January 2017.
- ^ "Glass Animals at SXSW". schedule.sxsw.com/2014.
- ^ "Muzoic - Album release ZABA (Deluxe) by Glass Animals". muzoic.org. Retrieved 18 March 2016.
- ^ "Watch Glass Animals Get "Gooey" Again on Late Night With Seth Meyers | The Lefort Report". www.thelefortreport.com. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
- ^ "Watch Glass Animals play 'Gooey' on Letterman". DIY. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
- ^ "Glass Animals tickle the feet with new single "Life Itself" — listen". 17 May 2016. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
- ^ a b "Glass Animals: Track-By-Track Guide to How To Be A Human Being". pastemagazine.com. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
- ^ "Glass Animals, Human Beings: Interview & Photos • Howl & Echoes". Howl & Echoes. 26 August 2016. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
- ^ "Apple iPhone Shot on iPhone by Linda H. Commercial Song by Glass Animals". tvadvertsongs.com. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
- ^ "Flume impresses with sound design, beats in "Skin Companion EP II"". The Miami Hurricane. 1 March 2017. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
- ^ Geena Kloeppel,"Reading and Leeds Festivals Have Banned Pineapples Because of a Glass Animals Song",SPIN,15 August 2017
- ^ "Glass Animals Cancel Tour After Drummer Hit by Truck | Pitchfork". pitchfork.com. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
- ^ "Glass Animals and the Art of Being HumanII"". Noisey. 26 August 2016. Retrieved 20 August 2017.
- ^ https://www.instagram.com/p/3oqwOwNsvM/?hl=pt-br&taken-by=glassanimals
- ^ "On the Verge: Glass Animals' 'Gooey' groovesII"". USA Today. 1 March 2015. Retrieved 20 August 2017.
- ^ https://www.instagram.com/p/BNFTuBjhfWI/?hl=pt-br&taken-by=glassanimals
- ^ "On the Verge: Glass Animals' 'Gooey' groovesII"". USA Today. 1 March 2015. Retrieved 20 August 2017.
- ^ https://www.instagram.com/p/BNKYe6MByt2/?hl=pt-br&taken-by=glassanimals
- ^ "On the Verge: Glass Animals' 'Gooey' groovesII"". USA Today. 1 March 2015. Retrieved 20 August 2017.
- ^ https://www.instagram.com/p/BL4ZUOdh4y0/?hl=pt-br&taken-by=glassanimals
- ^ "CHART: CLUK Update 21.06.2014 (wk24)". zobbel.de. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
- ^ "Discography Glass Animals". Hung Medien. australian-charts.com. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
- ^ "Discographie Glass Animals (Flanders)". Hung Medien. Ultratop. Retrieved 9 January 2016.
- ^ "Glass Animals albums (Walloonie))". Ultratop. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
- ^ "Glass Animals – Chart History: Canadian Albums". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
- ^ "GLASS ANIMALS DANS LES CHARTS FRANÇAIS" (in French). Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique / Lescharts. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
- ^ "Discografy Glass Animals". irishcharts.com.
- ^ "Glass Animals MegaCharts" (in Dutch). MegaCharts / Dutchcharts. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
- ^ "GLASS ANIMALS IN DER SCHWEIZER HITPARADE". Hit Parade. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
- ^ "Glass Animals – Chart History". Billboard.com.
- ^ "Upcoming Releases - HITS Daily Double". Hits Daily Double. Archived from the original on 8 August 2016. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
- ^ "Glass Animals - Life Itself". BBC.co.uk. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
- ^ "Discography Glass Animals". Hung Medien. australian-charts.com. Archived from the original on 29 January 2015. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
{{cite web}}
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suggested) (help) - ^ "Billboard.biz". billboard.com. Retrieved 25 July 2015.
- ^ "Mexico Ingles Airplay". Billboard.biz.
- ^ "Glass Animals – Chart History – Alternative Songs". Billboard.com. Billboard Magazine. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
- ^ a b "Glass Animals – Chart History – Hot Rock Songs". Billboard.com. Billboard Magazine. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
- ^ "ARIA Charts - Accreditations - 2018 Singles". Australian Recording Industry Association. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
- ^ "American single certifications – Glass Animals – Gooey". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 18 June 2018.
- ^ "ARIA Charts - Accreditations - 2018 Singles". Australian Recording Industry Association. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
External links
- Official home page
- Facebook page
- Billboard: Glass Animals Choose Music Over Med School
- Pitch: Glass Animals' Frontman Dave Bayley Talks Disney Princess, 2015 Goals Ahead of Saturday's Sold-out Midlands Show
- ^ 44. https://www.axs.com/5-things-you-didn-t-know-about-glass-animals-114917 axs.com. AXS Digital Marketing Platform. Retrieved 28 May 2018.